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Telecoms Plans for New Iranian Year

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi highlighted the ministry's plans for the new Iranian year (started March 20).

Speaking in a meeting with the members of information technology and communications guilds, Vaezi said the mobile number portability project will be launched by June 20, Mehr News Agency reported.

"The project will allow users to switch between operators without having to change their numbers and is aimed at improving the quality of services and increasing customer satisfaction," he said.

The minister noted that the project is expected to promote competition among Iran's three major mobile operators, while improving the quality and reduce the cost of mobile services.

Iran's three major operators are Hamrah-e-Aval or MCI, MTN-Irancell and RighTel. The fourth operator Taliya was not included in the announcement.

The minister said that over the past few months, the number of users of mobile Internet has risen considerably.

"In the new Iranian year, the ministry plans to expand 3G and 4G Internet to all cities and towns across the country," he said.

According to Vaezi, it was announced that during the New Year holidays, mobile Internet traffic had reached 700 terabytes per second: a sixfold increase compared with the same period of the previous year when the figure was reportedly 120 terabytes per second.

The minister noted that he aims to lend further support to app and content developers while increasing bandwidth for local Internet users.

"A comprehensive e-government project and a national data network will be launched this year,

he said.

Vaezi added that to boost the sale of domestic products in the realm of telecoms, the ministry has also placed special focus on research and development projects.

The goal is to meet the needs of the telecoms sector using local potential. Iranian researchers should be able to execute a project right from the time an idea forms to fruition with the support of the government.

In line with Resistance Economy—a set of guidelines put forth by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei to boost domestic production and reduce reliance on oil revenues—the ministry also plans to further support the private sector. To these ends, the ministry set up a specialized committee dedicated to these issues last year.

Iran's telecommunications industry is likely to face further shakeups in terms of funding and ownership, including the possible sale of locally owned operators to new buyers.

Last summer, it was rumored that France's Orange was interested in buying a controlling stake in MCI, however further information regarding this deal has been limited.